Egypt to cut down on LNG imports in 2017/18 year

Egypt is planning to import 80 cargoes of LNG during the 2017-18 financial year that began in July.

Egypt is planning to import 80 cargoes of LNG during the 2017-18 financial year that began in July, down from the 118 cargoes imported last year, Egypt’s General Authority for Petroleum (EGPC) announced on August 13, 2017.

Reuters reported that Egypt has been trying to speed up the development of recent gas discoveries with a view to halting imports by 2019.

The report quoted Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla saying that the country was planning to import 154 cargoes of LNG in 2016-17, but it only imported 118 cargoes because of the increase in local gas production.

Egypt expects to increase its LNG production by 1 billion cubic feet per day by the end of the current financial year to reach 6.2 billion cubic feet per day.

Italy’s Eni has discovered the largest gas field Zohr in the Egyptian territorial water in the Mediterranean in 2015, with estimated reserves of about 850 billion cubic feet.

The Italian company completed the development procedures in February and it intends to start production by the end of this year.

Egypt expects to achieve self-sufficiency of natural gas by the end of 2018.